READING A FAN TONG crime novel is like delving into the intricacies of Sino-French diplomacy or plunging into the intimate backstreets and opera world of Guangzhou. Fan Tong is undoubtedly at home in China, yet his novels are unmistakably French.
That's because it's the nom de plume for French novelist Francois Boucher. A long-time resident of Guangzhou, he has written five thrillers set in the city, two of which have been translated into Chinese. His latest novel, Ma Chine Arriere (My China, or Machine, Backward), takes place on a train that connected Indochina to Kunming in Yunnan province in the early 20th century. And meeting Boucher is also mysterious - like meeting a stranger on a train.
The novelist is full of stories and anecdotes collected from more than a decade of travels across the mainland.
The person who put Boucher on his current track is an old friend in Guangzhou, a seasoned French sinologist who not only encouraged him to write, but who also inspired the queenly heroine of his first three novels, Reine Fermont.
So why did he choose a female protagonist? 'Why not?' asks Boucher. 'The crime genre is simply a way for me to talk about the things I find amusing in Guangzhou, both the city and the people I know there. Reine is a strong personality who, while being an undisputed expert on all things Chinese, can't help sticking her nose into other people's business. But she's also a homage to this woman I admire.'
Yet for all his love of discovery and surprise - 'Adventure is not knowing what's going to happen to you when you wake up in the morning', he says - Boucher started his working life as a bureaucrat. Trained in law and political science, the 45-year-old served in Brussels for 10 years as an assistant deputy at the European Parliament and as director of an EU consulting firm. His adventures began in 1994, when he saw an advertisement in French newspaper Le Monde for Putonghua courses on the mainland. He enrolled at the Guangzhou Institute of Foreign Languages, and has called southern China home ever since.
Along the way, Boucher has accumulated his share of Chinese names: Fang Suo (Francois), which he uses on his business cards; Xiao Lajiao (Little Chili), because he likes it hot; as well as Fan Tong (Rice Bucket), which mocks how his slight frame masks his 'bon appetit'. His first two novels (Le cheval celeste and Le livre des fermentations) have been translated into Chinese, under a single title: The Assassination of the Consulate General, published by Hai Tian Shenzhen in 2003.